Anstractor (The New Phase Book 1)

by Greg Dragon

  Wheeling around to march out of the jail, Rafian noticed a young cadet running his direction. Upon catching up with him, the boy bowed deeply and took a knee, and Rafian swallowed some saliva to moisturize his dry throat before addressing him.

  “What is it, Cadet?”

  “Sir, first let me say it is an honor to speak directly to the commander, sir! I apologize for disturbing the commander’s stroll but wanted to let him know that Subcommander Camille YAN will be scheduled for release after getting an all clear from the psych ship Lauren. The unfortunate death of crewman Sole Sirn is ruled a result of the subcommander’s poor medical condition, and he will be air locked with high military honors as a soldier of war.”

  Rafian regarded the young man closely and then looked around to see who might have sent him.

  “Thanks, Cadet,” he managed to say, but as he nodded at the boy in gratitude for the tip and searched his senses, he realized that it was the brig warden who had saved Camille, shipped her off, and then sent the messenger to discreetly let him know the fate of his fellow jumper officer. He made an oath to reward the man for looking out for her, but first he needed to take care of much more pressing matters. Rafian summoned the twenty jumpers onboard—including Marian—and they assembled on the dock. He told them of the situation with Zynec Prime and then lied about Camille, telling them that she had been shipped off on a private jump.

  Rafian unilaterally changed the name of their organization, referring to them as phasers instead of jumpers. He had always hated the term “jumper” and preferred his old military designations instead of the abstract titles of the former jumpers, such as numbered call signs and “person” for fully lethal warriors. His command was simple. They were to send one solitary ship into the hell zone and have it infiltrate Zynec Prime to decimate her defenses. Once the defenses were down within the war zone, the pilot would drop a crystal for the other phasers to teleport onto the ground and commandeer the area from within. They would quickly set up a base city and then silently operate from behind enemy lines.

  Upon hearing this, the phasers were excited. They could finally test their mettle at home instead of jumping off to other galaxies. High spirits were all around until they learned that the pilot volunteering for the drop was none other than their commander, Rafian VCA. Marian looked ready to object when he announced it, but she saw the look in his eye and knew that after their argument and the sudden disappearance of Camille, there had to be bigger schemes beneath Rafian’s command. It made her wonder if there was a motive behind his volunteering. Could it be a rendezvous with Camille, who had possibly jumped there? Or, perhaps, given his dark mood as of late, was he was contemplating suicide?

  She was uncomfortable with it, but if her assumptions were right, confronting him would be the worst thing she could do. She let it play out and prepped herself to be one of the “boots on the ground” when the crystal beckoned. Her husband and whatever he was planning to do would remain a mystery, and she would just have to trust him to tell her whenever he was ready.

  When Rafian dismissed his men and women to enjoy their last night before deploying, he avoided Marian and chose instead to do the one activity he always did to clear his head. It was late in the hour when she found him atop his Zero fighter, polishing it as if he were going to be presenting it in an aerial show.

  “I brought you some Vlorian ice cake,” she said, smiling at him through the side of her face, the way she always did, hoping a friendly demeanor, a tasty dessert—which he always seemed to order—and some civil conversation would walk him back from the dark precipice she assumed he was teetering upon.

  “You’re a sweetheart,” he said in a dry, aloof manner.

  “Look, Rafian, this mission…” she began, and she could see him preparing to dismiss her as if he did not want to hear anything she had to say.

  “I know that your mind is made up, babe, but why you? You’re the top commander. This is crazy! The only time people do things like this is when they feel no confidence in their people to get a job done successfully, or when they want to go out in a blaze of glory on an important mission! I’m not going to bite my tongue now by saying this, but I feel for you it is the latter. Why you?”

  Rafian hopped down from his ship, threw the dirty cloth under its front wheel, and walked towards Marian.

  “So I’m suicidal now? How many of these phasers do you know to be trained as ace pilots? Outside of Camille YAN, how many other war-proven ace pilots do we have in our number, Ree?”

  Marian knew the answer but pretended to think about it at length. She got the point. There was no other pilot like Rafian VCA to fly the crystal drop. They had pilots who were good enough to be drafted in as phasers, but none as good as the man and woman who commanded them. Tayden was in decompression after completing some sort of top-secret mission, and Camille was missing in action. Rafian had to be the one to do it, and though it hurt her to see the man she loved attempt a mission so dangerous, she knew that as a soldier and a wife, she had a duty to support him.

  “Well, husband, tomorrow is the day of your lethal mission, and I will be watching you from a holo-vid somewhere up here, biting my nails and wishing upon every god’s name that I know that you will make it through, drop the crystal, land, and join me with the other jump…I mean phasers…in taking that strip of land.”

  Their last week of painful conversation about Camille had dismantled what seemed like a lifetime of love between them, and it all flooded her mind and made her extremely tired and worn out. How had they fallen apart so quickly? And why is he so angry?

  “I know you have been avoiding me, Raf. For a girl with no friends to not have her husband, it makes me feel unattractive in a way, y’know? Am I so ugly that my beloved starfighter would rather spend time cleaning an already-spotless ship instead of being in my arms? Is my unwillingness to share you—my entire world—with Camille a reason to hate me? Was our journey through hell, Talula, Veece—everything—so trivial that one other woman can sever us? You are all I have, and you are out here on your ship polishing it while I sit by myself contemplating the fact that after tonight I might not see you again. Rafian, IT IS ME!”

  She stood staring at him, her beautiful brown eyes welling up with tears and her fists clenched, ready to fight as the anger and hurt came to the surface as she stood there trembling. Rafian’s mouth fell open as he processed everything she said, and his heart melted from the realization of how selfish he had been. Camille’s arrest had soured his mood, and while he felt no different towards Marian than the day he had proposed to her on Tyhera, he had allowed his temper to punish her for something that she had no knowledge of.

  “I am such a thyping fool,” he said under his breath.

  With a lump the size of a moon swelling in his throat and tears trying to make their way to his eyes, Rafian walked over to his wife, kissed her passionately, and then scooped her up into his powerful arms and took her home.

  Memory 26 | The Final Phase

  When Rafian awoke to the alarm, which was set for early Vestalian time, he could see the dried tears on Marian’s face as she slept soundly on his chest. For some strange reason, it strengthened his resolve as he arose, prepped his uniform and mission details, and then stopped by the same cafeteria for a shot of espresso and some friendly conversation. An hour later, he walked out to his ship and was very surprised to find all of the phasers there, assembled in two long lines leading to the stairs that ran up to the cockpit of his fighter.

  The soldiers were standing at attention, saluting, and a few had faces filled with emotion. It felt as if time had slowed down for him as he walked towards his ship, and the flashbacks of that first mission to Geral came to him. Back in those days, he was unknown, unproven, and largely disrespected. Now he was a commander, and as he glanced around at all of the men and women he had trained, he felt a certain accomplishment that made him know that if death was his fate, he would be ready for it.

  Marian swung down from his c
ockpit in a red 3B suit, his las-sword strapped to her back and war paint streaked across her features, trying hard but failing to mask her beautiful face. She ran into his arms and kissed him before giving him a long hug. The phasers all looked away in respect and allowed him time to say good-bye to his wife.

  Marian leaned into Rafian’s ear and whispered, “Come back to me.”

  It was a Tyheran custom that the wives of the enlisted would do on the day that they feared their husbands would die. What it meant was that in the afterlife, the husband was to still come back so that they could truly be together forever. It was a morbid farewell but very Tyheran. Rafian nodded at her with the promise in his eyes as he recognized its double meaning. He then swung up into the seat of his ship with one arm—a trick he and Camille had mastered back when they spent all of their time on that very dock.

  The engines of the Zero Tolerance Phantom came to life, and Rafian’s vessel rose above the cheering phasers before launching out of the port towards the planet of Vestalia and what would be the beginning of the first assault on the planet.

  * * *

  The Phantom shuddered as Rafian broke the atmosphere of Vestalia and triggered the cooling mechanisms to keep the ship online. Almost immediately, the Geralese defense drones were on him. They did not ask him to identify himself, and they did not fire any warning shots. They came at him in the dozens, machine gun fire tearing the sky apart, but Rafian VCA was too focused, too ready to die, and too aware of their reaction. He cut through the defenses easily. His entry cleared once again, and he was able to pull up the navigation and find the country of Cerium and what was identified as the Zynec compound. The Phantom was outfitted with advanced cloaking mechanisms, and he made sure to go off the grid as soon as the last of the defenders were downed.

  Zynec would take some time to reach, as he had chosen to drop onto the planet in a different area from the one previously selected for the mission. Geralese planes were beginning to lift into the sky, desperately trying to find him and put an end to what they probably assumed was an invasion. Rafian wondered to what length they would go to stop him after realizing there was no host ship that was launching fighters, no wingmen to his Phantom, and no real sign of anything that would be considered an invasion force. They kept launching ships, however, and his initial attack, as precise and deadly as it was, was being taken very seriously. Still, no matter how many defense drones they sent looking for him, they posed no problem for the invisible ship that was zipping along at low altitude over the beautiful azure waters of Vestalia.

  “To think that we all used to live here in relative peace,” Rafian uttered to himself as he cruised along.

  He thought about the Helysian, and he felt disappointed in himself for not finding Aurora to tell her good-bye. His sister had found herself a beau and was usually occupied with him whenever Rafian was trying to grab her to talk. Aurora would gladly have told her man to wait while she spent time with her brother, but Rafian was very careful not to disturb her whenever she was out with him. This meant he barely if ever saw her. When he had sought her out to tell her of the mission, he learned she was on Meruda with her lover, taking a short vacation.

  He had managed to say good-bye to Vani. It was an emotionally draining departure, as she was the queen of melodrama. But he felt himself missing her antics more than he felt comfortable to admit. Vani had taken a holo-shot of him to keep on her mantle in case things went south on the mission. She also told him that she would write his biography and asked permission to edit her parts to make her seem more loving to him back when they were kids. It was amusing, but Vani was a character. Her crazy requests and antics were the medicine he needed to laugh off the serious tone of his departure. Now he flew through the mountains of south Cerium and could see the Geralese base that he was directed to destroy.

  Coming out of cloak to arm his guns, Rafian entered Zynec Prime like a bat out of hell. Barracks, buildings, and bases were lased and burnt under his deadly fire, and though the Geralos launched ships and surface-to-air attacks at him, the Phantom was too fast, too seasoned, and always a step ahead. Rafian’s mind was working overtime. He knew that by now, the Geralos would have called in reinforcements to stop his onslaught. But he wanted to be done and at the drop zone a lot quicker than any incoming rescue.

  The wing of the Phantom got nicked about thirty minutes into his raid, and he felt as though that would end his flight. He took emergency measures to make sure the ship would stay deadly, and he was happy to see that the damage was nothing major. He set the Phantom right and continued to rain death upon any structure that came across his path. One of the biggest obstacles he faced up to this point was literally a flying fortress. The behemoth delivered so many angles of attack that he found himself actually sweating as he dodged and darted, having the ship’s AI assist and adapt to the patterns, as through all of this, he was continually scouting for a weakness.

  It was a frightening experience to have what appeared like a large flying city drifting to intercept your course, shooting everything that it had at you. The way Rafian flew that morning was nothing short of legendary even among aces, and though the fortress slowed his progress and forced him to fight, it was soon rocked from a well-timed series of shots into each of its air vents, and before long, the Zynec landscape erupted into flames as the fortress crashed into the ground.

  On Helysian, some of the phasers stood about while others sat within the ship. This was the same ship Camille had been flying when she was attacked by pirates. The group was watching the glitchy holo-update of Rafian’s ship as he made his way through the bombing run. Marian was having a hard time watching, so she let the cheers, oohs, and ahhs of the others cue her in on when to look up from the floor at the action that was unfolding. Phasers had begun to use microrecorders on missions that were high level enough to warrant rescues. A microrecorder was no bigger than a mosquito and had a built-in cloaking device, so it stayed out of sight as it followed the phaser around. It transmitted the recording back to the command center, where an officer would watch closely, ready to send in the troops as it became necessary.

  With the uproar on Cerium, the only way the phasers would be able to help their commander now was through the crystal. As he neared the drop point, they witnessed another fortress appear before him, and they knew the Geralos were getting desperate. One of the men, Frank OTA, whom Tayden had personally recruited and trained to become a phaser, had assumed command. He stepped in front of the holo-video, straightened his jacket, and addressed the group.

  “Our commander was not given enough time to plan this drop, and he is relying on his talents to get it done. Instead of sitting here admiring his dance with death like old wives at a coliseum, why don’t we send another ship in to distract the incoming Geralese air force? For all they know, there is only one desperate, rogue ship doing immense damage on their base. Now, if they see two, they will likely overthink this whole thing and start slipping.”

  Yuth Varience, a Lyrian ace who stood listening, countered Frank. He wanted to make sure nothing was going to be done outside the commander’s orders.

  “Frank, the crystal and our drop will be confusing enough for our enemies. The main reason we sent in a sole bird was to minimize their panic, so that we can come out of the backdoor firing and take that city silently. Drop in another bird now, and they will assume it’s an invasion, possibly coming from a cloaked destroyer in orbit near Vestalia. This would ruin everything our commander is fighting for.”

  Frank sat back down and cursed. Of course Yuth was right in what he said, and though he wanted to help his commander, he didn’t want to jeopardize the plan and be the cause of a failed mission. He also didn’t want to be the cause of their missing this rare chance at winning the planet back.

  Marian, who had been listening silently to the conversation, stepped up to the spot where Frank had stood and asked the men and women to ready their battle gear. She also asked the pilots to hop into their fighter cockpits and a
wait the signal of the crystal that Rafian would be dropping soon. Surprisingly, the phasers did not object. They scattered to their respective corners to ready their equipment. Marian, who was already dressed and ready, stared at the holo-vid as the second fortress went down in a ball of flames and Rafian shot through the debris like a bullet.

  Finally, when Rafian shot down a would-be ace Geralos pilot and cruised into the valley that sat behind the Zynec structure, the assault ceased, as if his attackers were giving up. Slowing the Phantom Zero to a hover, he opened up the cockpit and threw the baseball-sized crystal into the sandy earth. As soon as he did this, a column of light erupted from it skyward, and six heavy fighters roared from the light towards the area that he had just entered. In a matter of minutes, Marian and the other thirteen phasers were through the light, armed and ready to fight.

  Rafian felt his heart swell with happiness to see his wife, and it was the first time he had allowed himself to accept the weight of the situation. Knowing that the mission was not yet completed, he landed, ran to her, and touched his helmet to hers. She was happy to see him make it and impressed at his skill, since she had never seen him fly. With the phasers all around him, Rafian pulled out his las-gun and led them back into the compound to clean up any survivors.

  * * *

  The shift from aerial warfare to ground was one that took some getting used to for Rafian VCA, as he lay prone on top of a hollowed-out building that used to be a radio tower. On the roof of the ruins, he could see the phasers carrying out the operation. It wasn’t fair for the Geralos, fighting phasers instead of marines. His men and women had tools that beings in most galaxies were absolutely clueless about, and phasers were trained to carry out one-man operations that could easily see death tolls in the hundreds. Having over ten phasers in one area working in concert was akin to magma pouring into a city after a volcanic explosion. There was no way to halt it, and if you were not evacuating when it came, the only certainty left for you was death.